A mobile transportable electrostatic chuck for clamping thin wafers (12) without permanent connection to an external power supply unit is described. The mobile chuck allows a safe handling of thin substrates on existing production equipment because the size and thickness of the clamped substrate on the mobile chuck is similar to a standard wafer. The chuck is made from silicon wafers itself as base material (11) using an IC manufacturing processes. Bipolar electrode-unit-cells (10), combined into clusters (4) and linked to an integrated fuse (5), generate a non-uniform electric field with additional force components. Peak-electrodes (1) are introduced with the highest field density in the peak region and thus creating a three dimensional non-uniform electric field with each surrounding electrode (3). Quadratic or hexagonal electrode-unit-cells (10) enable the highest dense of unit cells, which effectively clamp wafers (12) in close proximity to the surface (8a) of the chuck at elevated temperatures.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A mobile, transportable electrostatic chuck comprising a first surface ( 8 a ) for electrostatically clamping a thin process-wafer ( 12 ) thereon by applying a clamping voltage, without permanent connection to an external power supply unit for transportation or other process steps, where the size and thickness of the clamped process-wafer and the mobile chuck is similar of size, thickness and shape as a standard wafer comprising: a semiconductor base-material ( 11 ) with electrodes on top, which create a non-uniform electric field, wherein each said electrode comprises a plurality of clusters built up modularly from a plurality of single, bipolar electrode-unit-cells ( 10 ); each of said electrode-unit-cell ( 10 ) comprising one inside peak-electrode ( 1 ), a lateral insulator layer ( 2 ), a surrounding electrode ( 3 ) and a top dielectric layer ( 8 ).
2. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein each electrode-unit-cell ( 10 ) has a length of no more than 5 μm and a width of no more than 5 μm.
3. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein each said cluster ( 4 ) is built up from 4 up to 100,000 said electrode-unit-cells ( 10 ).
4. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein each said cluster ( 4 ) is linked to one or more integrated fuses ( 5 ).
5. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein integrated semiconductor-components are integrated within the said semiconductor base-material ( 11 ).
6. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein active and passive semiconductor-components are supplied self-sufficient with energy, comprising autarky capacitors ( 9 ), batteries or accumulators.
7. The mobile chuck as set forth in claim 1 , wherein solid state switches integrated in the said semiconductor base-material ( 11 ) are applied to switch on or off said electrodes.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
June 19, 2006
July 21, 2009
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